Upper Creek Falls

Being in the southern mountains, we are adaptive to cold winters, but not like this the past week: nine days below freezing, -15 & -20 windchills, snow and absolute misery.

As soon as the weather broke (and by that I mean it was above 10 degrees) I headed out to the trail.

Upper Creek Falls is a fantastic 1.3 mile loop hike, just outside of the Linville Gorge Wilderness in Pisgah National Forest (Grandfather District). On a normal, summer day, I would take my family here, enjoy the 50 ft. Upper Creek Falls and maybe jump in one of the many swimming holes. On this day, the pictures really speak for themselves: a creek you can walk across and climbers scaling up a completely solid waterfall.

For someone who tries to keep two feet firmly planted on the ground at all times, it was quite mesmerizing.

What a brilliant hike. Evergreens make winter hikes just much more special. When the leaves have fallen evergreens give the landscape some much-needed color. I don’t think I would be prepared to scale an ice face though. Looking forward to your next post!